King’s College 2004 v Mistress Gunnvör sílfrahárr
10
Overview:
Languages in Medieval Scandinavia
Evolution of Old Norwegian, Old Icelandic, Old Danish, and Old Swedish
vIn the later Middle Ages
- say from the Black Death to the Reformation,
roughly 1350-1550 - the Continental Scandinavian
languages underwent significant changes. In all of them the original complex inflectional system was
greatly simplified.
vOld Norwegian ceased to
exist as a written standard in the late 14th century, when Norway came under Danish control, though the rural spoken dialects continued to develop normally.
vOld Danish and Old
Swedish were greatly influenced by Middle Low German, the language of the Hanseatic League. Old Icelandic was exceptional: its pronunciation changed significantly during this period, but isolation and a
strong and strongly conservative
native written tradition preserved the written language almost unchanged.